Disrespect trickles down to elementary schools

Randi Kreiss

A fourth-grade teacher tells me this story:
She advises an after-school club for children who want to work on a special project for a science fair. She can only accept 10 students, and she chooses those who step up first with their plans. They set a due date for completion. Part of the project requires the students to interview a science teacher and write up the Q & A.
Weeks go by. The deadline arrives. Two of the students don’t have their projects completed. They say the science teacher they chose to interview was repeatedly unavailable. The fourth-grade teacher contacts the science teacher and is told that the students didn’t actually meet with him; he can’t understand why the students didn’t hand in the interview.
It becomes clear that the two students didn’t finish their project because they didn’t get around to finishing it. They didn’t submit the interview they conducted because they didn’t get around to writing it up. And they lied about all of the above to their teacher.
So, the teacher gave them what serves as detention these days, and insisted that they complete the project, apologize to the science teacher for wasting his time and write up the interview as required. She explained that several other students had been denied a place in the science club; it was a privilege they had abused.
Next day, the students’ parents were in school, complaining to the principal that their children were being “picked on” because they are from another country and refused to allow their kids to be reprimanded in any way. The teacher was being unfair to their kids, they claimed. The teacher, who was present, explained that the children were learning many lessons in her classroom, including to take responsibility for schoolwork and homework and to be respectful to their teachers — certainly not to lie about their failure to complete assignments.
Doesn’t it seem absolutely clear that these students should be held accountable for their lies and their indifferent attitude toward their project? And shouldn’t it be their parents who model respect for the teacher and her authority?